Budha

{{Short description|Deity of Planet Mercury}} {{distinguish|Buddha (disambiguation)}} {{EngvarB|date=March 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}} {{Infobox deity  | type = Hindu | image = Budha graha.JPG | name = Budha | caption = Depiction of Budha from the 1842 book ''The Complete Hindu Pantheon'' by E. A. Rodrigues | affiliation = Graha, Deva | abode = Budhaloka | god_of = '''Mercury''' <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.astroved.com/astropedia/en/planets/budha|title = Lord Budha, Planet Mercury, Hindu God Budha – AstroVedPedia}}</ref> | day = Wednesday | member_of = Navagraha | consort = Ila<ref name=Dalal2010/> Chitra | mount = a lion and a chariot hauled by eight yellow horses | planet = Mercury | father = Chandra | mother = Tara | children = Pururavas from Ila Chaitra from Chitra | number = 5 , 14 , 23 | color = Green }} '''Budha''' ({{langx|sa|बुध}}) is the Sanskrit word for the planet Mercury,<ref name=Dalal2010>{{cite book |last=Dalal |first=Roshen |year=2010 |title=Hinduism: An alphabetical guide |page=88 |publisher=Penguin Books India |isbn=978-0-14-341421-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DH0vmD8ghdMC&pg=PA88}}</ref><ref name="Life Story of Gautam Budhha in Hindi">{{cite web |title=Best Life Story of Gautam Budhha in Hindi |website=motivatorindia.in |date=September 2019 |url=https://www.motivatorindia.in/2019/09/gautam-buddha-in-hindi.html}}</ref> personified as the god of intelligence.<ref name=Mahoney2013/>

He is also known as '''Somaya''' or '''Rohinaya'''<ref name="Mahoney2013" />. He rules over the ''nakshatra''s (lunar mansions) of Ashlesha, Jyeshtha, and Revati.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krishnamurti |first=Kuthur Subbaraya Iyer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yt9WAAAAMAAJ&q=budha+ruler+ashlesha+jyeshtha+revati |title=Transit (Gocharapala Nirnayam). |date=1971 |pages=49 |language=en}}</ref>

==Planet== Indian astronomical observations of the planet Budha (Mercury) are recorded in several Sanskrit texts from the first millennium CE. These include the 5th century ''Aryabhatiya'' by Aryabhata, the 6th century the ''Romaka'' by Latadeva and ''Panca Siddhantika'' by Varahamihira, the 7th century ''Khandakhadyaka'' by Brahmagupta , and the 8th century ''Sisyadhivrddida'' by Lalla.<ref>{{cite book |last=Chatterjee |first=Bina |year=1970 |title=The Khandakhadyaka (an astronomical treatise) of Brahmagupta, with the commentary of Bhattotpala |pages=59–64 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |oclc=463213346 |language=Sanskrit |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WKOtRmgr1nkC |via=Google Books }}</ref><ref name=Burgess1989/>{{rp|pages=vii–xi}} These texts describe the characteristics of planetary motion.<ref name=Burgess1989/>{{rp|pages=vii–xi}} Other texts, such as the ''Surya Siddhanta'' (completed between the 5th century CE and 10th century CE), present information on various planets alongside the mythologies of their associated deities.<ref name=Burgess1989/>{{rp|pages=vii–xi}}

Different manuscripts versions of these texts vary slightly in their measurements of Budha's revolutions, apogee, epicycles, nodal longitudes, orbital inclination, and other parameters<ref name=Burgess1989/>{{rp|pages=ix–xi}}. Scholars interpret these variations as evidence that the texts were revised over time. For example, both the ''Khandakhadyaka'' and one version of the ''Surya Siddhanta'' state that Budha completes 17,937,000 axial revolutions every 4,320,000 years, and had an apogee (aphelion) of 220 degrees in 499 CE. Another manuscript of ''Surya Siddhanta,'' however, increases the number revolutions by 60 to 17,937,060, and records the apogee to 220 degrees and 26 seconds.<ref name=Burgess1989/>{{rp|pages=ix–x}}

Hindu scholars of the first millennium CE estimated the sidereal revolutions of Budha and other planets through astronomical studies, their results differed slightly from one another.<ref name=Burgess1989/>{{rp|pages=26–27}}

{| class="wikitable" align=center style = " background: transparent; " |+ Sanskrit texts: How many days for Budha (Mercury) to complete its orbit? |-style="text-align: center;" ! width=200px | Source ! width=340px | Estimated time per sidereal revolution<ref name=Burgess1989/>{{rp|pages=26–27}} |-style="text-align: center;" ! width=200px style="background: #ffad66;" | ''Surya Siddhanta'' | width=340px | 87 days, 23 hours, 16 minutes, 22.3 seconds |-style="text-align: center;" ! width=200px style="background: #ffad66;" | ''Siddhanta Shiromani'' | width=340px | 87 days, 23 hours, 16 minutes, 41.5 seconds |-style="text-align: center;" ! width=200px | Ptolemy (Almagest) | width=340px | 87 days, 23 hours, 16 minutes, 42.9 seconds |-style="text-align: center;" ! width=200px | 20th century calculation | width=340px | 87 days, 23 hours, 15 minutes, 43.9 seconds |} [[File:Mercury in color - Prockter07-edit1.jpg|thumb|The planet Mercury|286x286px]]

==Legends== In Hindu mythology, Budha is a deity and the son of Chandra and Rohini<ref name="Mahoney2013" /> or Tara.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mani |first=Vettam |title=Puranic Encyclopaedia: a Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishers |year=1975 |isbn=978-0-8426-0822-0 |pages=171}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Dalal |first=Roshen |title=Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide |publisher=Penguin Books India |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-14-341421-6 |pages=394}}</ref> The myth of the Tarakamaya War describes the events leading to his birth from Tara. Budha married Ila, with whom he had a son, King Pururavas.

One of the earliest mentions of ''Budha'' appears in the Vedic text ''Pancavimsa Brahmana.'' The deity also appears in other ancient texts such as the Shatapatha Brahmana though not in the context of astrology.<ref name="Mahoney2013">{{cite book |last=Mahoney |first=Terry |title=Mercury |year=2013 |publisher=Springer Science |isbn=978-1-4614-7951-2 |page=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iC65BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

==Calendar and Hindu astrology== The word 'Budhavara' or Wednesday in the Hindu calendar derives from Budha. In Greco-Roman and other Indo-European calendars, "Wednesday" is also dedicated to the planet Mercury (for eg. "day of Odin").<ref>{{cite web |title=Budh Mercury |url=https://astrospecial.in/my-blog/f/how-to-balance-mercury-budh-in-your-birth-chart |publisher=Subrata Chatterjee}}</ref>

Budha is part of the Navagraha (nine planetary deities) in the Hindu zodiac system, where he is considered benevolent, associated with an agile mind and memory. The role and importance of the Navagraha developed over time with various influences. Glorification of planetary bodies and their astrological significance appeared as early as the Vedic period and was recorded in the Vedas. The earliest known work of astrology in India is the Vedanga Jyotisha, which began to be compiled in the 14th century BCE. The classical planets, including Mercury, were referenced in the Atharvaveda around 1000 BCE.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mercury Budha in Vedic |url=https://northernlightsvedic.com/blogs/astrology-encyclopedia/mercury-Buddha |publisher=Northern Lights Vedic}} </ref>

The three nakshatras (lunar mansions) ruled by Budha are Ashlesha, Jyestha and Revathi<ref>{{citeweb |title=Nakshatra ruled by Budha |url=https://astrogiva.com/mercury-nakshatras/}}</ref>.

The Navagraha system was furthered by developed through contributions from Western Asia, including Zoroastrian and Hellenistic influences. The ''Yavanajataka'', (literally Science of the yavanas, referring to the Greeks) or ''Science of the Yavanas'', was written by the Indo-Greek named "Yavaneshvara" ("Lord of the Greeks") under the rule of the Western Kshatrapa king Rudrakarman I. The Yavanajataka written in 120 CE, is often credited with standardizing Indian astrology. The Navagraha system continued to develop and culminated during the Shaka era under the Shaka (Scythian) people. Contributions by the Shaka people later became the basis of the Indian national calendar, also called the Shaka calendar.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}

The name Budha also forms the root for the word forWednesday in many other Indian languages. In modern Hindi, Odia, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Urdu, Kannada and Gujarati, Wednesday is called ''Budhavara''; in Tamil: ''Budhan kizhamai''; in Malayalam: ''Budhanazhcha''; in Thai: ''Wan Phut'' ({{lang|th|วันพุธ}}).{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}

==Iconography== [[File:Planet budha.JPG|right|thumb|upright=0.8|A Painting of Budha in Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur]] According to Roshen Dalal, Budha's iconography depicts him as a benevolent<ref>{{cite book |last=Lochtefeld |first=James G. |year=2002 |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism |volume=A-M |page=[https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc0000loch/page/n396 324] |publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8239-3179-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc0000loch |url-access=registration}}</ref> male deity with green body, draped in yellow clothes, and holding a scimitar, a club, and a shield. He is shown riding a chariot drawn by eight yellow horses. In some illustrations, he has four arms and rides a lion; in the Budha Temple, he is depicted riding a lion.<ref name=Dalal2010/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://faculty.washington.edu/prem/mw/b.html |title=[no title cited] |publisher=University of Washington |access-date=15 November 2019 |archive-date=18 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518110446/https://faculty.washington.edu/prem/mw/b.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gray |first=Patrick |year=2015 |title=Varieties of Religious Invention: Founders and their functions in history |page=46, footnote [19] |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-935972-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oHM_CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA46 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

== References == {{reflist|25em|refs=

<ref name=Burgess1989>{{cite book |first=Ebenezer |last=Burgess |year=1989 |editor1-last=Ganguly |editor1-first=P. |editor2-last=Sengupta |editor2-first=P. |title=Sûrya-Siddhânta: A text-book of Hindu astronomy |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass (reprint); Yale University Press, American Oriental Society (original) |isbn=978-81-208-0612-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W0Uo_-_iizwC |via=Google Books}} </ref>

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==Further reading== * {{cite book |last=Svoboda |first=Robert |year=1997 |title=The Greatness of Saturn: A therapeutic myth |publisher=Lotus Press |isbn=0-940985-62-4}} * {{cite journal |last=Pingree |first=David |author-link1= David Pingree |year=1973 |title=The Mesopotamian origin of early Indian mathematical astronomy |journal=Journal for the History of Astronomy |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=1–12 |publisher=SAGE |doi=10.1177/002182867300400102 |bibcode=1973JHA.....4....1P |s2cid=125228353 }} * {{cite book |last=Pingree |first=David |year=1981 |title=Jyotihśāstra: Astral and Mathematical Literature |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz |isbn=978-3447021654}} * {{cite book |last=Ohashi |first=Yukio |year=1999 |editor=Andersen, Johannes |title=Highlights of Astronomy |volume=11B |publisher=Springer Science |isbn=978-0-7923-5556-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gQYscrT0fgQC |via=Google Books }}

Category:Navagraha Category:Mercurian deities Category:Hindu gods Category:Characters in the Mahabharata